The present invention relates to a propelling charge apportioning apparatus for use with a device for transporting propelling charge modules and a loading tray for loading the modules into a gun.
An apportioning apparatus is disclosed in German Patent No. 1,428,711, in which propelling charge modules are successively pushed by a hydraulically actuatable displacement device from a storage position into a loading tray and then, in order to load a gun, from the loading tray into a position behind the gun barrel from which they can be pushed into the chamber. For a long set of propelling charge modules, there exists the drawback that a comparatively long time is required to load the loading tray with the propelling charge modules which are successively introduced into the loading tray in their longitudinal direction. The prior art arrangement for loading the loading tray is thus counterproductive to increasing the firing cadence.
German Patent No. 3,437,588.A1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,544) discloses a loading tray which is fixed to a transfer arm that is pivotal about a trunnion in a gun. The loading tray itself is able to receive propelling charge modules in various numbers coming directly from a propelling charge magazine, on the one hand, in the same axial direction and, on the other hand, in the transverse direction. The supply of propelling charge modules is here determined by the configuration of the propelling charge magazine, wherein the propelling charge magazine is in the form of a chute magazine with transverse partitions requiring a lever mechanism that is integrated in the magazine for directly transporting the propelling charge modules that are arranged in magazine chutes disposed transversely to the loading tray into the loading tray. However, for the supply of propelling charge modules from the magazine chutes disposed along the sides of the loading tray into the loading tray, the propelling charge modules must likewise by pushed into the loading tray one after the other.